Buzzard’s slump continues against Newbold

Leighton Buzzard’s tough start to the season continued on Saturday as they were whitewashed by Newbold-on-Avon, going down 33-0.

An under-strength side lost the season opener 36-5 last weekend to Melton Mowbray, but their fortunes weren’t any better as they hosted Newbold at Wrights Meadow.

From the kick off Leighton Buzzard were under pressure, and Newbold’s Ben Dawes crashed over for what was thought to be the opening score after just five minutes, but the referee was unsighted so no score was given.

Leighton were dealt a blow early on when scrum half Ward went for an interception but knocked on and was given a yellow card, reducing them to 14 men.

And Newbold took full advantage of the extra man by putting the first score in.

After a further period of prolonged pressure by the forwards with several storming runs from Ben Nuttall , Ben Dawes and Nick Walton , Danny Facer crossed the try line out wide to make it 5-0.

Ethan Wookey converted from the touch line to make it 7-0 to the visitors.

Both sides tried to play open rugby but due to the weather, which saw relentless, there was a period of scrappy play, this ended when Newbold added another score. James McGill broke clear and passed to Rory Blood who stormed over for an unconverted try in the 25th minute to make score 12-0.

McGill increased the lead further five minutes later when he chased his own kick to score by the posts, Wookey converted to increase lead to 19-0 at half time.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first half, with both sides trying to play expansive Rugby but the weather preventing them from doing so.

But try as they might, Leighton struggled to get anything over the line as the Newbold defence stood firm, denying the home side any points on the board.

And the visitors compiled the misery on Leighton as Danny Facer and man of the match Kyle Furlong added two more tries, with Wookey kicking the extras to complete the 33-0 whitewash.